The Darkest Frost, Volume 1 of a 2-part serial (EXCERPT)

CHAPTER 6

THE FROST ESTATE

DEARBORNE, MARYLAND

Denieve

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Luke came bearing gifts twenty minutes later, but he looked rain-soaked and sick as a dog. Gauging from the bloodshot eyes and runny nose, his little bug appeared to be a full-blown case of the flu. He drove me crazy sometimes, but I'd never stop caring about him. Or worrying. I apologized for being a royal bitch on the phone and sent him off, making him promise to go straight to bed.

I went back upstairs to grab a shower and had just cinched the belt on my robe when the EVP alarm sounded. The library. I dashed downstairs and threw the double doors open. The portable EMF monitor in my pocket started pulsating like crazy.

This was the only room, besides my own, that wasn't an eyesore. Ms. Pierce had decorated the huge space with some beautiful Shaker antique pieces, high-end stuff costing more than most people made in a lifetime.

As I crept past a wall of security monitors, something smacked my shoulder. I tore around, ducking just in time. Three hardbacks flew at me like missiles.

A dictionary whizzed by my ear. "What the hell?"

Two more tomes zipped by, barely missing my face. I ducked again and wrapped my arms around my head, but the books kept coming until an entire row lay gutted from one of the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Cold, ghostly fingers grabbed at my elbow, but I yanked away.

"Caryn! Is that you?"

A voice whispered in my mind, 'Yes.'

I slapped a palm over my thundering heart. "Are you trying to scare me to death? First you trash my room and now this!"

And just like that, everything stopped. Silence echoed around me. Had it not been for the EMF monitor still vibrating in my pocket, I'd have thought she was gone. But then I felt her cold hand again, only this time she was gentle.

'Sorry,' she said. 'My powers- - -when I get too excited, it's hard to control them.'

"Where did you go? Why did you leave?"

'I was weak and I had to get back.'

"To where?"

She didn't answer.

Her silence triggered every emotion I'd suppressed about our ill-fated friendship. All the guilt and the doubts, all the resentment and pain came bobbing to the surface.

As for Caryn, rage had consumed her in the past. She'd refused my hospital visits, and for years afterwards, all my letters came back stamped "RETURN TO SENDER." But now she needed me, and scary as it was, I thanked God for the opportunity.

"Do you have any idea how much I m-miss you, Caryn?"

She didn't speak for several seconds. 'I think I missed you more.'

My heart leapt with joy as I struggled to compose myself. I was so overwhelmed, I scarcely noticed she'd led me across the room to the shelf she'd just emptied. She exerted gentle pressure on my shoulder until I knelt, then she guided my hand to an area beneath the top left corner.

Something cold and metallic brushed against my fingertips. An ornamental key was wedged between the wainscoting and the wall. It would've been inaccessible had the books still been there.